What Is Your Child Really Eating at School?

I was never the type of kid who regularly bought school lunches. They were never really appealing to me and quite frankly, still aren’t. I never really paid any attention to them or gave it much thought until after seeing some of the lunches served to the children at the daycare center I worked at over the summer.

           

Each day the lunch cart came around, it was my job to provide 14 preschoolers with a “well-balanced” plate that included mainly carbs and cheeses and the occasional vegetable and fruit. As an educator, I really wanted to encourage all of my children to at least try everything on their plate. After looking at some of their plates I thought to myself, “How can I tell them to try that if I won’t even eat that?” This made me think that there just has to be a better alternative to school lunches simply because these parents are paying far too much for their children to be eating this garbage. Not to mention, secondly, children should not be consuming this type of food on a regular basis. Period.

Meals like nachos and cheese, pizza, mac n’ cheese, loaded potatoes (you get the idea) offer no nutritional value what so ever for these children. People often have the mindset, “They’re kids, they will run it off.” Except, do we ever stop to think about how this type of food could actually have an effect on their mood, or energy levels? Could this be the reason why they are so tired when they come home from school? Regardless, schools have control over the food they serve to these children.

Children may not be overly thrilled that they don’t have a loaded baked potato on their plate for lunch, but it is also our job to educate them and teach them about healthier options and inform them about this so-called word we always seem to ignore; moderation. I am a firm believer in, “Everything in moderation.” Therefore, we should take a step back and reflect on the meals that these children are consuming on a daily basis. At the end of the day, children should not be eating something on their plate that is almost unrecognizable due to the amount of cheese smothered over it.

Learning Through Play

To an adult play may seem like a lot of nonsense and children making a mess; to a child play is everything.  Play is the basis on which children begin to build their knowledge and understand how the world around them works.  So why are schools taking away playtime in favor of more academic activities like math and writing worksheets?  Worksheets are not going to teach children how to function in the world.  There have been so many studies about whether having playtime benefits children or not.  Almost every study has had the same results, that children learn best through play and by doing. 

           In May there was an article printed in the New York Times called "Let The Kids Learn Through Play,"  which focused on how children are effected by both learning through teacher directed practices and through play.  In most cases children who are just sitting at a table writing their letters over and over again are not getting as much out of their education as the students who are playing.  Sure after a while the children who are copying their letters will have them memorized but the way they learned was not an authentic way of learning to a child.  However if children use different materials, like playdough, to make letters they have an easier time learning the alphabet.  Children will incorporate whatever they are learning into their games, reinforcing the knowledge that they have recently learned.

          Children become accustomed to the world by bringing current events into their games.  While playing children are getting the opportunity to experiment with behaviors and social norms that are used in the world around them.  Children will often incorporate anything they hear on the news or what their parents are talking about into their games as well.  The little ones do this to comprehend how the world works and the consequences of different actions.  It is so important to allow children time to play in the classroom because it allows children to build upon their knowledge in a way that makes sense to the individual child.

Promoting Early Literacy a Little Differently

      I was recently looking at children's books for my classroom when I found If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff.  I remembered having this book read over and over to me as a young girl.  When I was growing up my mother was a stay at home mom, so she always had time to read books to my sister and I.  Now that I am studying early education I am beginning to understand why it is so important to introduce literature and to model literacy at such a young age.  Introducing literacy at an early age is so important because it prepares children to become readers and speakers.  Promoting early literacy also helps reading become enjoyable later on for children.  It made sense to me that my mother would read books to us because she had all the time in the world to read.  With the economy the way it is now does not give much leeway for a parent to stay home and spend the day with their child.  I began wondering how early literacy can be promoted if there is not always enough time to read books.  I decided to do a little bit of digging when I was approached by a parent who had this concern. 

          What I found completely changed my perspective about introducing early literacy.  Thinking about it now I cannot believe that I never realized there were so many ways to promote early literacy that do not always involve a book.  One of the tips that I found most interesting was to tell stories about and talk about family history.  It was explained on Get Ready To Read's website that this type of storytelling gets everyone involved in the tale.  Another tip that I found from Project Enlightenment was to encourage children to draw and write.  Drawing and writing allows children to explore the idea that their thoughts and ideas can be put onto paper and can be shared.

           Children are natural born storytellers and listeners.  They take so much more out of stories than anyone could ever imagine.  The stories that children hear often have a huge effect on a child's development.  A child's language development is always influenced by their environment and the world around them.  One of the major ways to help develop both early literacy skills and language skills is to involve children in conversations and modeling how their native language works along with the rules that the language follows.  This is a perfect way for a busy parent to promoting early literacy and the perfect place to involve children in conversation is the car.    The car ride gives parents and children time to tell stories and have conversations about the world around them. 

Food, Food, Food and Food

In the web article, Americans Actually like Michelle Obama's Healthier School Lunches, there is a discussion about the Healthy- Hunger Free Act and how Americans feel about the act. Healthy-Hunger Free Act is a law that came into place in 2010 that was authorized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), to set nutritional standards for food bought, sold and distributed at schools.   

 In the article researchers conducted a national survey about whether Americans actually enjoyed the lunches they were being served. A large percentage of the Americans supported having healthier lunches that consisted of fruits and vegetables. A majority of Americans decided that healthy foods are important and should be provided at schools. The healthy foods at school increase a child's cognitive ability. Also when children are provided a nutritional breakfast their overall brain function increases. 

Even though healthy foods are important for the children, when does portion control come into play. Children should be provided healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables; however, in some school lunches the children do not even know what they are being served. 

School lunches should be healthy, and have the correct portion control for the children's needs. Americans agree that healthy foods are important and there should be healthier foods in the school cafeterias. In the picture above where are the fruits and vegetables? 

Giving Us the Writing!

"Every Mark on the Page: Educating Family and Community Members about Young Children's Writing" by Kate Foley Cusumano is a fascinating article about the writing process for children. the article was all about telling families and communities that young children's writing process is not perfect!

As people in the community, friends, teachers or parents should be aware of the process of writing of young children. When children are writing in school for classwork, homework or to tell a story there writing will not be exactly what, adults, should think it should be. Children are just trying to get their thoughts down on paper and show that they too can "write" like adults. Although in schools teachers and at home with parents, the adults tend pin point the mistakes and "mark" up the paper with an X for wrong!
This act of marking up a child's paper is harmful the child's learning. The adults in their life are looking past the correct spelling that they did, and zoning in on the misspelled ones. This act of simply overlooking turns learning into quizzes and stress rather then actual learning and enjoying the learning.

Parents and teachers should work together to make writing fun for the children and the adults in their life. Writing is an important tool that follows children for the rest of their educational career and their actual careers. Communication is through writing for most of the time, why not when starting young have everyone understand the importance of encouragement versus discouragement. 

Kindergarten For All?

          Did you know that only fifteen states require children to attend kindergarten?  I recently learned this while reading the National Associations for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) blog.  I must say that as a future educator that number is absolutely appalling.  There has been some discussions in the past about whether kindergarten should or should not be made mandatory.  There has also been some talk about revamping pre-kindergarten programs to use a curriculum that mirrors the kindergarten curriculum.  The reality is however, that for most children in the United States going first grade is their first time being in an actual school setting. 

          The kindergarten curriculum was designed to prepare children for the first grade and for life in the classroom.  By the end of kindergarten children should be able to use basic math skills, like adding, subtracting, and telling time.  They should know the basics of reading and should be able to identify fifty sight words.  Kindergarteners should also be able to write every letter of the alphabet, their name, and know how to structure simple sentences.  These are the skills that children are expected to have before they enter the first grade.  Children who do not attend kindergarten often lack these skills as well the social skills that are needed for the classroom.  

          Children often do not know how to act in school or how to treat their peers or teachers because school behaviors where never modeled for them.  One of the important social skills that children learn in early programs is the difference between how they are expected to act at school and at home.  In the classroom children are given the chance to experiment with behaviors and emotions that are appropriate for school.  In these programs they get a chance to not only adapt to the structured schedule of a classroom but to have the schedule adapted for their needs as well.  For example, a kindergarten schedule often includes playtime because children learn best through play; when children go to first grade there is no room for play except for at recess.  Due to the focus on academics and preparing for standardized tests the first grade class schedule cannot often be adjusted to the needs of individual students.  By making kindergarten mandatory every student will be prepared for first grade and will have the skills to thrive in school settings.

Aren't Dolls For Girls?

“Aren’t dolls for girls?” That’s what some may say. But, is it correct to imply that only girls can play with dolls? Without the push towards gender stereotypes, would our children know (or care) that dolls are for girls? If we tell a girl that she has to dance instead of playing baseball, she’ll be confused. When we follow up with baseball is for boys, we are putting emphasis on the fact that little girls have a specific reputation to live up to in terms of what they can and cannot do, while the same goes for little boys in playing with dolls, and is that okay to do?

Whether they know it or not, adults and parents play a pivotal role in what children feel comfortable doing and playing with. From a personal experience, at my preschool we have a boy student who frequently chooses to wear a dress at playtime. Rather than deter him from wearing “girl clothes,” we aim to create a space where he, and the rest of the students, feel comfortable playing with the toys they want to play with, rather than focusing on the gender stereotypes.

We frequently aren'taware of how much we reinforce stereotyping by complimenting boys and girls instereotypical ways, such as telling a girl they look like a princess. As a goal for parents and adults, it is important that we focus on encouraging children to be themselves, rather than attempting to categorize them stereotypically based on their gender.
            Rather than making remarks towards gender stereotypes, is there a way that we can make strides towards breaking stereotypes altogether, especially in children? If we as a generation eliminate these stereotypes towards children, will they, too grow up without knowing gender stereotypes? And with this, do we have the ability to eliminate gender stereotypes as a whole?